On Monday evening on the public service television news channel M1, Justice Minister Judit Varga described the opposition’s “hypocritical” and “irresponsible” behaviour as incomprehensible in the context of the fact that the opposition did not consent to the urgent debate of the proposed legislation about the containment of the coronavirus in departure from the House Rules.
It is completely incomprehensible why the opposition was unable to constructively cooperate in Parliament in the interest of keeping in effect measures that serve our best interests, the Minister said.
On 11 March, the government declared a state of danger due to the coronavirus epidemic. The decree remains in effect for fifteen days, until 26 March, following which the government can only extend the effect of the decree based on Parliament’s mandate. Ms. Varga said if the relevant decision had been adopted by Parliament on Monday, it would have been possible to extend the effect of the decree with immediate effect. However, due to the opposition’s behaviour, this could now only take place next Tuesday, at the earliest. The Ministry of Justice is now working on minimising the damage in the situation that has evolved in consequence of the opposition’s irresponsible behaviour and bridging the constitutional gap, she added.
In response to the suggestion that the opposition found objectionable the lack of a temporal restriction on the mandate to be granted by Parliament, the Minister said the dispute about a temporal restriction is nonsensical and hypocritical. No one knows whether Parliament will at all be able to be convened at a pre-fixed date, for instance in 90 days’ time, which conveys the risk that important measures could cease to have effect. At the same time, the opposition’s arguments are also hypocritical because the legislature could at any time withdraw the mandate from the government, and the proposed legislation laid down a fixed scope both in time and subject-matter. The mandate is only valid for minimising the consequences of the epidemic and alleviating losses, for the duration of the state of danger. According to Ms. Varga, a highly coordinated attack has been launched against the bill on the containment of the coronavirus. While in the days before there were constructive seven-party consultations, “the liberal Soros choir” launched into action at the weekend, and the well-known actors started spreading fake news which, the Minister said, is shameful.
While the rest of Europe’s countries are fighting for lives, health and the alleviation of economic losses, there are politicians in Europe who single out certain countries for criticism and weaken their containment efforts. What they are doing now is extremely harmful, the Justice Minister stated.